DALTON – Many upcoming plans were discussed at the borough council meeting May 11.
In his public works report, Bill Brandt announced that New Enterprises Stone & Lime in Clifford made a bid of $155,000 for the second phase of the paving project, which involves Fuller Road and Brookside Road.
“I feel that we need to get this rolling,” said Brandt.
The council voted to approve a motion to award this bid.
Also, Brandt talked about a pipe which pumps water all day into Third Street. He said board member Bill Montgomery and borough engineer John Seamans discussed plans to block the pipe.
“It’s a terrible thing for the five or six houses that are affected up there,” said Montgomery. “They (residents) might still have to have that pump for their condition, but if we can pump it (water) into a ditch, that would be great.”
Also, Brandt said water from a pipe on Prospect Street is flowing into the Russo family property on South Turnpike Road. He said the property has a ditch, which was installed a few years ago, overflowing with water from the pipe and the recent rainfall.
“There is a ditch there, but we want to sharpen it up and bring it down and around his (Mike Russo) property,” said Brandt.
Brandt said Mike Russ is willing to work with Dalton Borough on this project.
“He (Mike) has agreed to let us dig on his property,” said Montgomery.
Another project Brandt talked about is landscaping on Charles Drive, which currently has long, deep ditches in front of a few properties. He said he talked to a few contractors, who are landscaping specialists and one of them, a local resident, gave him an estimate of $6,000.
“I have two more calls out for individuals who haven’t gotten back to me yet,” said Brandt. “But that’s the kind of number we can use for a thinking process.”
Brandt said the local resident is going to clean and shave the land and wants to blanket the ditch with topsoil.
Charles Drive resident Rick Loman, whose property is near the ditch, commented the recent constant rainfall has caused erosion at the edge of his driveway.
“Obviously, it reduced our property value,” he said. “I hope we can get some kind of compromise here and reach a settlement.”
Zoning officer Jared Gard suggested to have Seamans send him a material list to complete the landscaping project. He said he will call supply companies and obtain a quote for the materials.
Board member Len Peters said one of the reasons the ditches are so deep is because the pipes under the driveway are too deep.
“If we go to a piping concept, we may end up having to rip every one of those pipes out and reset it,” he said.
Brandt announced a ditch is needed for the Department of Public Works building to have both gas and water. He said Montgomery obtained a quote of $12,000 from an area contractor.
“The work project with the road is not going to be tense on our guys this year,” he said. “We feel that we can do this ourselves. So, we’re going to be getting prices on the piping from this building (DPW) down to our facility (Dalton Municipal Building).
